The Ides of Perry Mason 18

The 15th of every month until I don't know when I will post a review of a Perry Mason mystery. For the hell of it.

The Case of the Lonely Heiress - Erle Stanley Gardner

This is the 31^st Perry Mason mystery, first published in February of 1948.  Perry is approached by a prospective client, Robert Caddo, a sleazy publisher of Lonely Hearts Are Calling, a magazine for the lonely looking for their soulmates. 

The cops, however, don't take the romantic view of this. Suspecting some kind of fraud, the cops are hassling Caddo, alleging Marilyn Marlow is just a cutout to juice circulation figures. Caddo wants to prove the genuine existence of Marilyn Marlow, who describes herself as a lonely heiress. Reasonably taking the view of the cops, Perry observes the ad is a fake, saying , “No intelligent heiress would even read your magazine. And no good-looking heiress of twenty-three would advertise to meet a man. ”

But Perry finds out that the mother of Marilyn was a nurse who had been hired to care for the rich crank George Endicott. Marilyn’s mother, then, stands to inherit George’s fortune, which she would fork over to Marilyn thus raising the girl’s expectations. George’s family understandably objects to the nurse-mom getting George’s dough and chattels. The nurse-mom ends up being killed and Marilyn is best suspect, given the bloody murder weapon was found in her car.

It’s not a surprise that fans regard Mason a hero, unlike the lawyers that they must deal with in real life. We believe Perry when he says lines like this: “[I always] Stick my neck out for my clients. I should have taken the case just the way any other lawyer would have; taken the facts as they were and let the chips fall wherever they might. But no, I’m not built that way. I’m always a pushover for a client who is having the breaks go against her.”